Wednesday, 25 November 2015

Taste of London Festive edition | meeting Lily Pebbles and Anna .

Last Saturday, I was very luckily offered two tickets to visit Taste of London but this time it was the Winter Festive edition which I have not been before, but I think this actually their first Winter Taste of London. By the way if you haven't see my previous blog post about the summer Taste of London from last June then please click here.

Tea leaves at T2 tea stand .

This time around I decided to introduce my boyfriend to a taste adventure on the first of a very chilly morning of this winter season. Taste of London was this time located at the Tobacco Dock near Wapping tube station. We have not been to this area before or to Tobacco Dock and I have to admit it was a lovely discovery, a place that we may go again for a nice Sunday morning walk.

We arrived rather early, doors were opening at 11am and I think we were there around 11.30am and our first mission was to locate all the restaurants and pop-up food stands, you know the very important stuff! Once this was done we decided to look around and try to find the ASDA Extra Special stand to thank them for the tickets and mostly discover what they had on offer for the festival season. And indeed they had a lot to offer. During our little visit we got to try a succulent Iberian ham where a chef cut extra yummy thin slices for us. I have to admit it reminded me a lot of Christmas in France with my family where we pretty much every year have Iberian ham, usually on boxing day or sometime on Christmas eve, I was very pleased to see that ASDA included this in their festive menu as British people are missing out on something rather excellent. Also a few hours later we went back and this time we got our hands on some succulent beef steak that was literally melting in our month while Philippa Carr (wine expert) introduced us to the ASDA festive wine selection for this year!

We also had the opportunity to meet Marcus Wareing who is one of the judges on BBC Master Chef. He spoke about his career, his restaurant, his Master Chef experience and also, us the public, had the opportunity to ask him any questions that we wanted. And did we do well! We fired questions at him, from how to cook the perfect leg of lamb, to women working in the catering industry, apprenticeships, his worst experiences etc. He was very funny, very enthusiastic...it was literally a pleasure listening to him. I was very happy that I had the chance to be there for his talk as there were limited places but Chris and I managed to squeezed in.

During our visit at Taste of London Chris and I decided to try out two dishes; The first we went for was the Sugar Pit Beef Rib Slider with Kimchi Slaw (see below picture) by the restaurant Hix. Well let me tell you something, this was beautiful and I could have easily gone for a second one then a little while later we decided to try something else and this time our fancy brings us to the Kurobuta stand and we tried their Hot Crispy Duck Ramen (see below picture) once again this was deliciously warm and I especially liked the peanut trimming sauce and the duck was very succulent! But I have to admit, as much as the ramen was delicious I think the Sugar Pit Beef Rib Slider was my favourite.

Another highlight of my day was meeting Lily Pebbles and Anna from Vivianna Does Make Up. I did not know they would be around, and I bumped into them while they were having muled wine with their boyfriends it was as random as that. I really love these two girls and I have been following their blogs and YouTube channels for probably over a year now and meeting them randomly was very special to me. I approached them with a very shy and very nervous hello and I have to admit I most likely looked like a total idiot but I was very nervous so I forgive myself but still I had to say Hi. They asked for my name then they nicely comment on my lipstick I was wearing this day (Pop Cherry by Clinique) and querying about my purchase of leaf tea at T2 tea, if I was enjoying myself etc. they were very friendly and having that little chat with two of my favourite famous bloggers was great. But yes.... there is a big BUT obviously I had to be the biggest idiot in the entire world as I stupidly forgot to ask for a picture! Yeap you heard it right! I met two of my favourite bloggers and I forgot to taking a picture? What is wrong with me!? I think I won the idiot award of the year, right? * me shacking my head in despair *. Sorry guys I have no picture of them with me, having said that, Lily Pebbles did Snapchat a lot on the day about her adventure at Taste of London (I only noticed later that evening at mine and if you follow her you probably knew too). Anyway here two screen shots of Lily's Snapchats with Anna at Taste of London. I am sure Lily would have not mind. :)

So there was my Taste of London Winter adventure, filled with delicious foods, smiles and meeting great people. Thanks again for Freuds.com the PR team behind ASDA for the tickets.

This event was honestly for me and Chris the kick start of the Festive season. Seeing all those beautiful Christmas trees, smelling mules wine, meeting great Chefs and tasting gorgeous yummy foods all around has really set me in the festive mood. I know we are still in November but I cannot wait 'till Christmas time and be surrounded with the people I love.

Have you been to Taste of London before? Or Have you met Lily & Anna too? Tell me all by commenting below.